'I Do Not Forget' by Sydney artist Wang Xu commemorates the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989

Supplied: Wang Xu

Australian artist Wang Xu's self-portrait 'I Do Not Forget' shows him with people fleeing the Tiananmen Square massacre, and attests to his determination to remember those days in 1989 when his life changed.

The Sydney-based artist left Beijing several months after witnessing the events of May and June of that year.

He was granted refugee status in Australia on fears he would be arrested if he returned to China for speaking with foreign media after the massacre.

"It changed my life," he says.

"I escaped and came to Australia."

At first Wang, who was 40 at the time, didn't join the students' occupation and protests in the square, leaving it to the younger generation to push for more freedom in China.

"I think the demands of the students for democracy and rule of law were very reasonable," he says.

"They didn't want just a group of old men to deal with political affairs.

"I think most people support(ed) them, even though they didn't choose to go to Tiananmen to demonstrate".

Wang says he became angry when authorities refused to meet with the students, some of whom went on a hunger strike to push their point.

He says not much has changed in China since 1989 - political reform under Xi Jinping has been disappointing, despite his anti-corruption drive, and the clampdown on activists ahead of the 25th anniversary has been fierce.

"This picture (I Do Not Forget) is about the need to remember," he says.